Thursday, March 9, 2017

3+ Sheets to the Wind and Seeing Stars

I made one like this using my looooooong bright strings on navy background and liked it (it's on my bed right now) so decided to use my looooooong pale strings and make something similar.

I chose a six pointed star so I didn't have to worry about Y seams. This is from a Fons and Porter book. Can't remember which one right now. (I mentioned which one in some previous posts).

Almost all of the loooooong strings came from quilt backing cut away from the sides of quilts. I use a lot of sheets from the thrift store for quilt backs so most of the stars are made from sheets like this one...

...and this one which also has a touch of muslin that I sometimes use as backing on my 30s quilts. I even used some sheet bits for the light blue inner border.

This star has some feather/bird bits left over from a backing on my Feather Bed quilt and bits of gray used on a "manly" quilt back.

This star has sheets mixed with blue bird and hyacinth bits used as a backing.

And this one is a conglomerate of a wide cream colored tonal backing plus the large gingham bits and other parts from a small box of things my daughter brought me from a garage sale. They were long pieces like they were someone else's quilt back leftovers.

These are my favorite type of quilts to make. I like to make something from practically nothing - repurposed sheets repurposed again into a quilt...thrift store and garage sale bits and pieces...scraps. Plus it was rather a challenge to make something I like from strings on the pale side. I like challenges.

11 comments:

I so understand the making "something from practically nothing" thing! That's the only way it's fun for me. I love the treasure hunt for scraps and sheets, and the thrill of putting something together that was once pieces and parts of something unused, and making it useful and interesting to look at (if not exactly "beautiful" in everyone's eye, I don't care. Useful IS beautiful). I so enjoy your blog. Thanks for sharing your wonderful quilts and philosophy. I understand completely!! And I love your wonderful, quirky, beautiful quilts.

This top is like a wildly gyrating kaleidoscope, and I Love it!!! I understand and want to teach my ministry quilters to adopt this attitude toward using those bits and pieces of leftovers, and not to worry about everything being matchy-matchy. So much more interesting this way! Keep on-keeping on, you're doing everything right!